I'm Seeing Double (Double/Double)!

OK - this is going to get a little complicated...

Second-cousin marriages aren't that uncommon, and they're easy to comprehend:  two people get married and they share a common ancestor, specifically a great-grandparent and usually a great-grandfather and great-grandmother.   That's consanguinity of the third degree.


Today, I found a weird situation where a married couple's marriage certificate mentioned a third-degree consanguinity which I followed-up, but then noticed that they actually shared TWO sets of great-grandparents.   In other words, they're double second cousins.  (They're also my 5th great-grand aunt and uncle.)

Weird...

Then I got to the next marriage in their family tree.   The bride and groom have the same sets of parents as the previous couple: a brother+sister marrying a sister+brother.  Again, that's not THAT uncommon, but then it hit me:  you have two siblings each marrying their double second cousin. 

It's a "double" double second-cousin marriage!

So, each of these couples' children (my 1st cousins 6x removed) only have 12 great-great grandparents instead of the usual 16. 

It gets WEIRDER.  

In 1773, Marie-Angélique Grenier (1729-?), my 6th great-grandmother, remarried after Joseph-Gaspard Choret passed away in 1768 to Jean-François Sévigny who was recently widowed from Marie-Anne Croteau (1719-1772).  


This sets up another "Greg and Marcia Brady" situation as my last posting.   Fifteen months later, Angélique's daughter Geneviève (1756-1824) who was 17 at the time of the re-marriage, marries her 22-year old step-brother Pierre Sévigny (1752-1828).   They're my 5th great-grandparents.  

Here's the Story... of a Lovely Lady... (well, you get the idea)

My latest project is to go back to all the Québecois direct ancestors and catalog baptism, marriage, and burial dates using resources for Drouin and Tanguay.   This is to find errors and provide better legitimacy to the information in the Family Tree.

I'm about halfway through.   In the course of this I've found several glaring errors in Tanguay, and have made copious use of the LaFrance tools at the Drouin Institute.

It's also been interesting stumbling across odd relationships.

Take for example 8th great grandmother Catherine Laîné (Laisné).  She was born in 1653 in Rouen on the Seine and came to Québec in 1671 as a Fille du Roi.   Apparently she had been contracted in marriage at least once[1] but had "second thoughts" once arriving in Québec.   Shortly after her arrival, though she married the 28-year old Etienne Mesny (Mesnil), also from Rouen.   During their 22-year marriage, they had ten children (nine girls and one boy who died as a toddler) until Etienne passed away in 1693.   At that time, the oldest girl, Marie-Anne was married, but the others were still at home, one (Marguerite) only two months old.

The year 1709 (sixteen years after Etienne's death), was full of joyous and sad events.   In early May, daughter Suzanne marries, but dies two weeks later.   Mother Catherine re-marries the 50-something widower Jean Paré only four days after that!   Finally, the younger Catherine[2,3] marries in November.  Catherine and Marguerite move to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré to live with Jean, and (at this point) his four sons: Etienne (18), Prisque (16), Timothée (9) and François (probably about 10).  

Where it gets "odd" is that five years later, Marguerite marries Prisque.

That makes Jean her step-father AND father-in-law. 

Or, looking at it another way, it's the ultimate Greg and Marcia Brady romance...


[1] Remember, the Filles du Roi frequently had marriage contracts before they left France to men they had never met.   However, they were allowed to break the contract upon arrival and marry someone else.

[2] This is yet-another Québec family who were in DESPERATE need of a book with baby names!  Of the 9 girls, there are two Annes, two Catherines, and two Marguerites.  Although in most cases where this sort of thing happens, only Catherine #1 was dead when Catherine #2 was born; both Annes and both Marguerites lived to adulthood!

[3] This Catherine is my 7th great-grandmother.